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Community Service

Yorktown Christian Academy's required community service program gives students the opportunity to apply their faith in practical acts of service to others. Students are required to complete 15 hours of service each year outside of school with an organization of their choice. By volunteering for churches, literacy organizations, service programs, and other charitable groups, students grow beyond themselves, expand their educational horizons, and experience the joy of giving to others.


What Constitutes Community Service?

Community service is the practice of giving of yourself in the service of others - giving to those who are less fortunate, giving to those in the neighborhood where you live, giving in order to make your community a better place. With "giving" as the important component, the community service requirement may be fulfilled by working with most any organization in the non-profit sector.

YCA students have worked enriching the lives of others within their own home churches in Sunday school, nursery and toddler programs, Vacation Bible School settings, in neighborhood nursing homes and retirement communities, in community shelters and food pantries, and for environmental, literacy, and outdoor education programs.
 

Community Service Journal

The community service journal is due on May 1 and is required for reenrollment for the following school year. This journal will affect the student's citizenship grade and may also affect other class grades as determined by the classroom teacher. Consult the Parent/Student Handbook for details regarding the content of the journal.

Service Project Ideas
   

Idea 1: Book and Magazine Drive

This project can be done door-to-door in one day, or students can leave door hangers and return later to collect the books and magazines. Work with a store (grocery, dry cleaners, donut shop) to collect the books over a period of time, and make arrangements with the benefiting organization prior to the collection drive.

 POSSIBLE BENEFICIARIES:  
  • Daycares
  • Military deployed to other countries
  • VA medical center
  • Inner-city school
  • Christian Library International

Idea 2: Assist the Elderly in Your Community

  • Participate in caroling at a nursing home.
  • Collect personal items and make baskets for the elderly with no families.
  • Conduct entertainment programs, including skits and plays, at a nursing home.
  • Conduct visits and reading programs.
  • Construct reading tables for residents to be able to read sitting in a chair or in bed.
  • Prepare and distribute Valentine’s cards.
  • Assist in yard work.

Idea 3: Remember Others During the Holidays

  • Adopt a needy family.
  • Assist agencies that provide meals to the needy by helping them prepare and serve the meals.
  • Stock shelves and carry food to vehicles at a food pantry.
  • Make and donate gift boxes to be distributed by Feed the Children.
  • Participate in collaborative food drives and collect donations for food pantries.

For Veterans and Memorial Day

  • Place American flags on gravesites for Memorial Day.
  • Make and deliver thank-you cards to veterans on Veterans Day.

Religious Holidays

  • Assist religious organizations in setting up and cleaning up exhibits and activities.
  • Deliver, retrieve, and dispose of Christmas trees.
  • Remove lights for residents.
  • Repair and paint town holiday decorations.
  • Collect toys for Toys for Tots.
  • Go caroling at a home for the elderly.
  • Purchase toys for a children’s hospital.
  • Make stuffed animals, include personal notes, and donate to a children’s hospital (e.g., Build-a-Bear).

For Thanksgiving

  • Provide free coffee at rest stops on Thanksgiving weekend.
  • Ring the bell for The Salvation Army kettle campaign.

Idea 4: Home Repair and Maintenance

  • Adopt a town after a disaster.
  • Assist organizations that provide home maintenance services for those in need.
  • Assist with painting a school, church, or other organization.
  • Clean a Habitat for Humanity house before the family moves in.
  • Clean a local animal shelter.
  • Repaint fences at fire stations or other buildings.

Idea 5: Litter Cleanup and Beautification

  • Adopt-a-Road cleanup.
  • Assist in community beautification projects, including repairing and repainting homes and sprucing up the yards of those in need.
  • Litter cleanup projects.
  • Beautification project at city hall.
  • Cemetery cleanup and inventory.
  • Cleanup and beautification of community center.
  • Clean up campgrounds, a local park, river, or a school parking lot.
  • Clear brush from fire buffer zone.
  • Clear debris and downed trees from people’s yards following a disaster.
  • Improve walking trail.
  • Clean up the shoreline.
  • Yardwork for a senior citizen in the neighborhood.

Idea 6: Medical

  • Assist in the packaging of medical supplies for developing countries.
  • Assist with a blood drive.
  • Collect books for a VA medical center.
  • Distribute organ donor cards to the public.
  • Distribute healthy living and drug abuse awareness literature.
  • Provide a first-aid station at an event.
  • Help children make safety kits to take home and use when bicycling.
  • Make “welcome home” hygiene kits for disaster victims.
  • Make bandanas and pillows for cancer patients.
  • Collect and donate toys for children’s hospital.
  • Serve as victims for a county EMT or first responders training course.

Idea 7: Military

  • Conduct a book drive to send to military deployed in the Middle East.
  • Send Christmas cards or be pen pals with someone in the military.
  • Collect books for a VA medical center.
  • Make and deliver thank-you cards to veterans on Veterans Day.
  • Organize a movie night at a VA medical center.
  • Place American flags on gravesites for Memorial Day.
  • Provide telephone cards to servicemen and -women.

Idea 8: Pets

  • Assist in training search and rescue dogs.
  • Clean a local animal shelter.
  • Clean out and refill bird feeders at the local Audubon Society.
  • Collect and crush aluminum cans to donate to an animal shelter.
  • Construct duck houses.
  • Construct an educational sandbox for local nature center.
  • Construct owl boxes.
  • Construct and install bluebird and bat houses to combat mosquitoes.
  • Conduct a pet food drive.
  • Provide socialization time with service dogs as part of their training.

Idea 9: Safety

  • Build a fence around air conditioners on a playground for the children’s safety.
  • Build handicapped ramp access at community locations.
  • Construct a walking path for children walking to school.
  • Conduct a CPR training event.
  • Provide a first-aid station at a community event.
  • Help children make safety kits to take home and use when bicycling.
  • Host a bike rally to train youth on bike safety and maintenance.
  • Make “welcome home” hygiene kits for disaster victims.
  • Repair and repaint playground equipment.
  • Serve as victims for a county EMT or first responders training course.

Idea 10: Serving Food

  • Assist agencies in preparing and serving meals to the needy.
  • Serve free coffee at a rest stop on Thanksgiving weekend.
  • Set up, serve, and clean up meals at a social center.
  • Have a troop or crew put on and cater a pack’s blue and gold banquet.

Idea 11: Sports

  • Assist with a basketball tournament.
  • Assist with Special Olympics—ribbons/medals, water, etc.
  • Construct a soccer field—lines, goals, and benches.
  • Construct bat and helmet racks for school baseball and softball teams.
  • Construct a horseshoe pit in the community park.
  • Hold a dodgeball tournament and donate the proceeds.
  • Line and place blocks in a golf course parking lot.
  • Refurbish the press box at a ball field.
  • Repair and paint bleachers at a baseball or softball field.

Idea 12: Let us hear from you!

If you have another idea or want to refine this list, let us hear from you.